Mail Archives: djgpp/1999/03/08/05:27:11
Samuel Mukoti writes:
> 1. A DOS screen saver - with cool graphics-pictures etc. Im sure
> with djgpp you can make one with no worries about hogging up the
> convetion memory?
Yes, you can make a TSR with djgpp: see v2tk/djgpptsr.zip. This is a
very complex job, though: much harder than in real mode, and it has
the disadvantage that the DPMI server has to remain resident all the
time while your TSR is installed. This isn't a problem if you only run
djgpp programs from DOS, but it will confict with any other software
that uses protected mode features. The 32 bit Borland tools are
notoriously bad about this, but I think some Watcom programs may have
trouble with it as well, and you won't be able to start Windows after
you install this TSR.
> I've been for 2 years frustrated 'cause I've come across many games
> that only work in native DOS (non of this Win DOS Box) so Its forced
> me to put my joystick away hoping that some day I may actualy use it!!
> I wand to make a TSR that I can load before running one of these games
> - such that it will comunicate with the joystick port sending the
> data.. you get the Idea. That way games would be able to use these
> DIGITAL joystics.
I don't see how that is possible, unless you are planning to write an
entire DOS emulator using V86 mode so that you could virtualise these
devices. The analog joystick is read by timing how long it takes for
a hardware bit (accessed through an IO port) to fall back from 1 to 0
after you set it, which isn't something that a DOS TSR has any way
of hooking into. There is a BIOS interrupt for reading the joystick,
and you could easily hook that, but it wouldn't help you very much
because I don't think any games actually use that BIOS call (many
machines don't implement it). So I'm afraid this job may be much
harder (read: you'd have to write your own OS to implement it :-) than
you seem to expect...
Shawn Hargreaves.
- Raw text -